Thursday, January 13, 2011

Hitmen Intensify Attacks in Mexico's Richest City

Reuters

According to BBC News, members of a Mexican drug cartel blockaded 13 roads in Monterrey Saturday evening. According to Mexican police, drivers were pulled out of their vehicles and their cars were used to cut off the roads.

Drug gangs fighting over Mexico's richest city have launched a wave of attacks against police and rivals since New Year's Eve, crushing hopes of a fall in violence and alarming business leaders.

Firing automatic weapons and grenade launchers, brazen hitmen in Monterrey have killed at least 10 police officers and shot up police stations, attacked a prison, killed bystanders, and threatened local journalists in a burst of violence across the city that was once known as one of Latin America's safest.

In a sign that a two-month period of relative calm has ended in the city that has close U.S. business ties, drug gangs hung the half-naked body of a woman from a bridge on December 31, the most gruesome act since 51 bodies were found in a mass grave just outside the city last July.

"We're on alert, we're ready for these kind of criminal attacks against the authorities," Nuevo Leon state Governor Rodrigo Medina, the top regional official, told reporters this week. "We have to be ready for a difficult scenario."

The jump in violence in Monterrey, where annual income per head is double Mexico's average at $17,000, is a major worry for President Felipe Calderon as foreign companies question the safety of doing business in the area.

A U.S. executive was abducted, beaten and robbed of his armored car in Monterrey last week, U.S. security consultancy Stratfor said, although police declined to comment.

Home to global cement maker Cemex, top Latin American drinks company Femsa and foreign factories including General Electric and Whirlpool Corp, the region generates 8 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product.

Monterrey's slide into violence is one of the most dramatic developments in Calderon's war. The city and the surrounding state of Nuevo Leon reported 610 drug killings in 2010, by far the worst ever for the region, although national security spokesman Alejandro Poire said on Monday violence was systematically falling due to government efforts.

More than 30,000 people have died in drug violence across Mexico since Calderon sent the army to fight the cartels in December 2006. The government says the bloodshed is a sign the gangs are weakening, but business leaders and rights groups worry the strategy has backfired, sparking an endless stream of revenge killings that is spilling out across the country.

EXODUS
Lauded by then U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002 as a model for poor countries, Monterrey is seeing business and tourism suffer while some investors are freezing investment.

Some wealthy residents have fled to cities such as Houston, and while no exact figures are available, demand for so-called U.S. immigrant investor visas, which require Mexicans to make up to $1 million investments in the United States, are surging. "We are talking about an exodus," said Jose Cornide, a private wealth advisor who helps applicants with the process.

No big foreign companies have pulled out of Nuevo Leon because of the violence, but some executives are holding back on investments and companies are spending 5 percent of cash flow on security, a cost that was nonexistent a few years ago.

Monterrey, a city of around 4 million people some 140 miles from the border with Texas, is prized by drug gangs as a money laundering center, as a strategic hub for narcotics distribution and for its kidnapping rackets. With its sleek highways, posh restaurants and private universities, it is a place for drug capos and their families to live unnoticed.

A cartel alliance wants to flush out the Zetas gang, led by former elite soldiers who switched sides to join organized crime in the 1990s, and argue this would end the violence.

"People of Nuevo Leon, good, hard-working people, help us. We want a real peace without the Zetas," read a message distributed across Monterrey this week and signed "The New Federation." That federation is a grouping of the Gulf cartel from northeastern Mexico, La Familia (The Family) from western Mexico, and the Sinaloa cartel, run by Mexico's most wanted man Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, U.S. and Mexican officials say.

A string of arrests of local gang members appeared to contain Monterrey's growing violence in October and November -- until gunmen detonated a car with explosives outside a police station just outside the city in mid-December.

"A lot of the battle is about extortions, the high standard of living in San Pedro," said a U.S. official, referring to San Pedro Garza Garcia within Monterrey's metropolitan area that is one of the wealthiest enclaves in Latin America. "It's about who owns the town and can say 'this is our city'."

(Additional reporting by Gabriela Lopez in Monterrey and Michael O'Boyle in Mexico City)

46 comments:

so i guess i was making it up about being stuck in traffic and wondering if it was a narcobloque...

i think they have went step further and started tampering with the traffic lights...making them not work to further confuse the situation...or maybe it is just coincidence ..who knows

felix u gomez was backed up yesterday...and so was jose conchello...maybe it was an accident ...but there was a convoy of soldiers ...and feds ..going somewhere ..i just got the feeling it was some kind of trouble

Monterrey is just too creepy right now...especially now that it is cold and everybody is wearing big coats , and scarves over their faces...better to hide a gun and conceal the face

one of my wifes primos came in the door last night wearing a skull cap and a scarf ...and just about gave ever one of us a heart attack..it was funny in a macabre sort of way

I agree with you lito brito. As a Canadian living and working in Monterrey for the past several years, it is so strange now.

When I arrived, Monterrey was so clean and safe and welcoming. Now, by necessity, everyone is a little wary and rushes where there need to go so they can race home to relative security.

But the pools of blood on the streets, even in San Pedro; the kidnappings of friends, colleagues or a member of their families touches everyone; the sound of gunfire; the roadblocks and the fear have become part of everyday life.

And through it all, we try to carry on as if things are normal, but they are not. And the fear is fed by the corruption - cops who stop you looking for a payoff; cops in the pay of the cartels. It makes you wonder if there is anyone to trust.

Thankfully, I don't have an extended family here. My employer does not permit me to visit some areas without guards, or sometimes not at all. And there is lots of talk about closing up in Mexico totally, resulting in 300+ lost jobs, and moving back north of the border.

It is so sad to see what has become of my beloved Monterrey. And I don't know if I will ever see Mexico emerge from the violence that has taken over.

Very true Brito, my family in Mty. lives in fear (to a certain degree). They live close to San Pedro in the heart of all the conflict and it is looking worse by the day. All this week there have been conflicts close to El Tec., all down Garza Sada, Lazaro Cardenas (Las Torres), Rio Nazas, etc.Bodies have been dumped all over their neighborhood and even on their sidewalk close to their house. I don't know how much longer they can take it.

It is true about Mexicans fleeing MTY. This has been going on for about 5 years now, many are moving to The Woodlands here on the outskirts of Houston. I see some at the local malls and talk to them about what is happening over there in Mty.

yeap...what a shame ..i just wonder when all out chaos is gonna break loose..and the cops ..especially the municpals are part of the problem ..not any solution...yesterday , on my way to soriana , they stopped me for looking suspicious, searched my pockets, and when it was all over , the 1100.00 pesos i had was down to 900.00, but i felt lucky that they only took 200.00...when it gets to the stage that you feel lucky to only be robbed a little bit ...WTF.... the feds and soldiers seem better...but who really knows..i still remember what the army did in Chiapis, and i really feel that when they start shooting they don't care too much about "collateral damage"...everybody i know is saying it is gonna get worse....not good...it is weird..in the states when you see a gang of cops...you figure there wont be much going on..here all hell could break loose...and when you see convoys of soldiers...hmmm..if you see that on tv ..it says "war zone"...CROSS FINGERS , HOPE FOR THE BEST

I agree a thousand percent. and you know this did not have to happen. I love Mty, I remember my first drive into the city I was awe struck...I turned to my assistant and yelled "really?????" I miss my weekends there. Of course DTOs are directly responsible by action, but so to Calderon by his inaction. Feds should have moved in and taken over the municipality, including the police. Locked down the city in/out and martial law. SHould have been done long ago. Pisses me off. Protecting US maquilas in Juarez has been done so efficently that there is almost nil crime or deaths, Mty could have been saved.

Businesses moving out is contributing to the problem, I understand why and I most likely would as well, but by making it a commerice ghost town and with residents moving out it contributes to the instability...

Briiito: get out hombre!! did you drive there? or fly in? hopefully the latter. a safer driving route would be back thru Piedras, or acuña...don't know where you would be driving back to, but I have gone the very long way to be "safer" . of course piedras and Acuña have had problems but relatively quiet most the time...

That is my problem and the main reason I don't visit Monterrey anymore. The crooked cops are the main cause of the problems. Without them these Narcos would have never gained so much power. This cleanup should have happened a long time ago...

cops corruption can hardly be avoided I guess, when you know what massive amounts of money is available to narcos, and you know how badly cops are paid ...

I think every law abiding citizen in MX should take a shoe and throw it in Los Pinos. This Calderon guy is hopeless. I was complaining of Dubya, but he almost looks competent compared to his friend Calderon. I can barely understand he gave up on Tamps, but I am stunned to see him letting Mty go. When will narcos wage battle in MX city?

Do you see a chance for the military to take over sometime? Martial law and a curfew are inevitable to restore order.

Reading about this situation just leaves me heartbroken. I cannot believe my beloved Monterrey could fall into this much chaos.

As a rock climber residing in rainy Seattle, I traveled to the area many times to climb in La Huasteca with friends there. We rang in many of new years, and all the great times ensured that I would return the following season.

I had been planning on spending the holidays there again this year. Unfortunately, I was warned not to come down by my friends there...it seems that everything started getting really bad last July...that's when I started hearing from friends that the kidnappings and killings had increased tremendously.

The mention of bodies dumped off Lazaro Cardenas in Las Torres really saddens me the most, that is the neighborhood I stayed in (up the hill from the big Home Depot/Wal-mart shopping complex. I think of all the gracious people who lived in that area and just hurt with sorrow to think what they are enduring.

What is even worse is that there does not seem to be a path out of this downward spiral, the violence seems to be a 'new normal'

the only way i see for it to stop is if the army or feds start going house to house ..checking id's, have a presence in the barrio, and do whatever it takes to establish it as a fact of life that they are more powerful than the criminal element..

this is what the cartels have done...that has to be turned around...until this happens , there is no future ..i am saying if it is a war , then treat it like war , and use tried a true tactics.. the main one is to build confidence ..post rewards for the guys you are looking for ...be johnny on the scene

i guess in short militarize the city..or forget it ...running here and there willy nilly just makes the authoritys look helpless

i have come to the final conclusion that either ..the gob de Mexico is too incompetent to fix the problem...or they have a hidden agenda that is preventing them from doing it...

which one is worse?...damned if i can say...and i am just about tired of caring, at this point just want to get some folks out and forget about it ...my own country needs fixing and i need to be there worrying about it,

i really feel that Mexicans don't really care that much about where their country is headed, as long as it dosen't personally affect them...i think that shortsightedness is ingrained in the Mexican character...from top to bottom...

i know i am gonna get the hate for this ..but Mexico is like a nation of children,,,sweet, beautiful, loving ,creative, and totally endearing..but like children selfish, rude , obstinate,cruel, self centered...and so on...you get the picture

Mexico all at one time ..ancient, and yet to mature

i wonder how it would have been if the Spanish had not found it...it seems that wherever they landed they wreaked havoc that is still inflicting problems on the people today

@ J Monterrey has a heavy Zeta presence in most of the municipalities surrounding Monterrey and Monterrey municipal also. The CDG has been killing cops, robbing banks, throwing grenades at media stations etc for months now. If the state and state police of Nuevo Leon can't stop these NF guys than the Zeta civilian gunmen will have to, they are trying to bring out the Zetas from the shadows. What do you think about "Los Rudos" police???

Monterrey is not in any way like Juraez at all, and people need some perspective about the real situation in most of Mexico. My wife and kid were there for 10 days on the Holidays and both their heads are still attached. I have multiple relatives living in relatively 'hot' zones and they're still alive and doing quite OK. Could use some work that pays decent wages but that has always been the case.

All those having a panic attack about Monterrey on a blog that reports Mexican events to Gringos should have a little shame about their exaggerated expressed jitters. If my kid could be out playing in the streets of the area for 10 days then I really have to ask myself why some of the supposedly all tough macho types who regularly blab nonstop away on this site act like they are shitting in their pants? You know who you are.

So the NF is out hunting down police officers that in some way or another support the Zetas right? What do they expect for all these police officers to come out and say "We will no longer support the Zetas and now we will support the criminal organization that goes by the name NF." How is that gonna benefit the state of NL? Over in bdn you can see people cheering on the NF. Knowing that these people doing the "Cleansing" are as ruthless and careless as the Zetas. Can't wait to see the Ejercito double their feet on the ground in NL...

A beautiful, modern city, rich with history and wealth created (not stolen) by businessmen and women from Mexico and all parts of the globe. A place where civilization thrives and children can grow up, hold their head high, and say "I can do that one day." (Be a banker, a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher...) A place made safe by rule of law (honest law enforcement, just courts, concerned politicians). A place for hope...

Now imagine that city destroyed...like C. Meir...burnt out, shot up, deserted. Bodies strewn across the sidewalks, hanging from bridges. Warring gangs battling over scraps of an empty shell of a city. The people, except for the poorest, gone, fleeing to another city or another country.

Is this some kind of terrible fiction dreamt up by a cynical writer or horror? Or is this reality?

Furthermore, is this latter scenario acceptable to anyone called human? What would happen to a country once it has reached this point? Does anyone care?

Do you care, Mr. Calderon? Do you care, DTO's of the world, insistent on bringing the pestilence of drugs to a country with money.

Do you care, Americans, you who do not think past the range of the moment--consuming your drugs, partying all night--without a single thought of what it took to get these drugs to you.

Are you sure you want to be human? Or is the prospect of a cave more appealing? ...Maybe a meteor should hit us all right now...

Hey Ernest...congrats, for once you seem the calm and collected one, and no mention of the Evil Empire!

However I have to bring up the point that while everyone you know is doing quite OK, there are also probably quite a few around them that Aren't..and more and more people are being affected by the day...so can you really fault people for raising the alarm?

los zetas are much bigger and powerful than i thought. it's crazy how quickly they have grown in the last few years. how they started with a couple hundred soldiers working for the CDG and now they have branched on their own and are in the thousands and have spread deep inside tamaulipas, nuevo leon, guatemala, monterrey. this cartel seems like they're only going to grow bigger and more powerful in 2011.

people from juarez have told me that los zetas and the juarez cartel are creating a strong alliance and are planning a huge attack for 2011 on the sinaloa cartel for the plazas of chihuahua and juarez. these guys are spreading like cockroaches throughout mexico's border.

calderon cannot give monterrey to los z's and CDG. this cannot even be an option. this city holds too much prominence. there is too much commerce and industry. the audacity of these cartels. tamaulipas, juarez, tijuana, but NOT monterrey. this foolish president better send more protection to this special city.

that's like if the mexican mafia took over los angeles and the italian mob took over chicago. this just sounds absurd to me, that the cartels are ruling all of mexico and doing whatever the hell they want. this kind of behavior use to be tolerated but now has already been accepted by the mexican government. have they surrendered? or maybe they don't care? or probably they are just plain stupid? are they leaving their strategies and aspirations to el chapo?

monterrey has the largest educational system in latin america with 33 campuses and the university of monterrey is the second most important private university in mexico(wiki). gang shootings in monterrey have disrupted their schools. very bad...

CALDERON better get off his lazy ass and get together with his incompetent advisors and think of something to protect monterrey and it's people NOW! or else the cartels are really gonna smell blood and the shit will really BLOW_UP! DO SOMETHING NOW PINCHE CALDERON!!!!

@ Anon 2:39 You sound like the Mexican government who says nothing is happening... es pura psicosis. You should post as Bagdad Bob. lol

Consider yourself lucky that nothing happened to your family. In part you are correct, the majority of the people aren't harmed in this violence if they have nothing to do with the narco business, however many do live in fear and their lives are affected by the violence.The streets are not at full as they once were at night, people are afraid to be out at night. Well at least where my family lives. Los Zetas set up blockades in the neighborhood, have video surveillance along the streets and armed men patrolling the neighborhood.

it was on telediario..this morning ...tres hombres killed in colonoa moderna...they were in a white four door chevrolet ...looked like a malibu...the car was shot all to hell ..no one claimed responsibility for the shooting yet...but it was an assassination ...

and last night there was some kind of loud explosion went off...it might have been some kind of fireworks ...but every body pulled the cortinas and nobody was out after that ...but it is pretty cold also ...so every body was inside anyway

contrary to what some people say here ...i am not seeing a lot of people out who don't need to be ....i mean nobody is hiding under the bed ...but nobody is hanging out in the park or on the street...but the cold is a factor also...

but to say Monterrey feels safe right now...i don't think so...especially if you have been here when it was safer...you can really tell the difference ..Monterrey has not been the same since the Z's hung their recruiting banners

ajulio yes there is a large presence of military and federal police. I went recently and did see several military convoys pass through the neighborhood. However Zeta convoys can also been seen in the neighborhood.

yeah man they are all over the place ..convoys here and convoys there...the army has these 40 mm auto grenade launchers mounted ..on the trucks...and a guy in full combat armor ..six or eight full combat geared soldados in the back...they wear green camo...the feds are the same ..only all in black..or six trucks at a time ..sometimes more ..sometimes along with the feds..sometimes alone...plus the Monterrey cops ..all over the place...and estatls...also down on B juarez ..and around the mercado area ..there a bicycle cops..from the amount of police ...if you didn't know better you would think it is all under control..and it is ..i mean it is not like every time you go out you see open warfare...but the thing here is ..is that it can look totally safe ..and any minute the shit can hit the fan... it is not so much what you see going on..but what you can feel with the undercurrent...and the occasional weird shit goin on ..looks ...guys hanging out ..looking strange ...if you are on the street and you hear tires screech or loud acceleration...or a backfire from a car ...or see big four door trucks coming ..it really creeps you out...like i say ..controlled panic...

there are tons of police here...but they are always goin somewhere else...but thats good ...you don't want to see them coming anywhere near to where you are

...they don't screw around down here ..the narcos are armed up and seem to have the nerve ( cocaina) to shoot it out with the police y army...and i don't think they are really gonna make much effort to miss "civilians"

i don't think Monterrey is gonna break out into open warfare any time soon...but , for real man...it could ..at least in limited areas..for limited times...

ordinary things like getting stuck in traffic have a totally new dimension here

i got to say this ..also..i really do think that without all the army and feds ..it would be open combat ...nobody has much faith in the monterrey cops...their full name is pinches ratas culeros policia..and from my personal experience they about half deserve it ..but life goes on...everybody has to go to work ..sell on the street...etc...Mexicans are nothing if not tough and resilient..plus ..people believe that when it is your time it is your time ..and not before

Today in the morning Monterrey authorities found a traffic police cut up in pieces in a blue plastic box that said "CDG" on the front and "La Plaza de la Silla" on the side. A state police was also slained and some other 3 guys in a Jetta were also gun downed.

you can see zetas convoys cruisin' the streets too? crazy. que huevos.

@ lito brito

pretty damn good reporting there lito. vivid. for a few minutes, you put me in monterrey. great reporting. i had little knowledge of monterrey before. great comments by everyone. be careful lito and get back safely. keep us updated still, if anything crazy happens. your comments are very interesting.

it's really not easy being calderon right now. i understand why some people are still rooting for him but i really hope he can bring control to monterrey. if he does'nt, we are in for another sad roller coaster ride!

I'm pretty sure it was CDG signing their work, there were also another 2 killings with messages on them but I couldn't read them because of the bad camera angel (pretty sure the local media did on purpose). A total of 10 people were gunned down in Monterrey today.

Ernest1 mentioned his child playing in the streets of a Monterrey colony during Christmas vacation. I do not doubt this for a minute. There ARE kids out at the parks (not lately because of the cold), riding their bikes, playing with friends,etc.

In the daytime, it is a different world so to speak. Sure if you KNOW what to look for you can see the halcones on the corners, in front of the OXXO,in the plazas. They are everyone and everywhere: The man sitting on the bench all day, the guys "picking up cans" up and down the same stretch of the highway for days at a time, the delivery man, and the list goes on and on..

In the daytime you may also see convoys of narcos, or a sweet SUV being guided by a "wingman", it's all out there, hidden in plane site.

You will also see convoys of soldiers, marines, and federal police as well as state police in convoys with municipal police.

You learn to read the signs. How many trucks were in the convoy, how many soldiers/police in each truck, are their windows up or down, How many shooters do they have standing, is it a mixed convoy (soldiers and police etc) or a straight convoy, are their AEI or PM, ambulances?, etc, etc. This lets you know how close danger is.

But the nighttime..that is a different world. The winter hours are long and more ofton than not lately, nightfall opens the doors to a completely different world.

For the most part, people try to stay off the streets after 10 or 11 pm, at least in Guadalupe and southern Monterrey avenues such as Revolution. Garza Sada and Lazaro Cardenas.I know some people who dont move from point A to point B without checking Twitter (there are hashtags for shootout, grenading, etc) and others who prefer to just wing it.

Unfortunately grenades, shoot outs, kidnappings, etc are not an excuse to miss work, school and everything else.

yeap ..you nailed it... i was over in the mitras area last night and for the first time here ..seen a little convoy(6) of soldados in humvees..usually they are in pickup trucks..it added a new level to the portending war zone feel...

just about got ran over by three trucks of some of monterrys finest speeding like all hell off to somewhere on constitucion

drove over to san pedro..differen't world over there ...got to love the arrogance of the wealthy...i had to sit through a stop light twice , because even though the light changed , they wouldn't stop going... finally a bunch of us just went for it and bulled our way through, all the while trying to edge each other out...yeap estillo mexicano

_the creepiest thought of all is the hand grenades and god preserve us all , car bombs...

also yesterday i went to a little street market where they sell used clothes ..bought a pair of pants for 30 pesos...kinda high ..but everything has went up lately ..

and on the way back witnessed two pitbulls killing another smaller , younger looking dog...there were probably ten people standing around watching it happen...most of them looked concerned , but nobody was doing anything about it , it was like they just couldn't conceive of intervening , even though they looked concerned ...another Mexico in a nutshell incident ...

even if people care they don't know how to react ...i stopped and yelled at the dogs , and was about to get out of the car and grab them but then i drew attention...

it made me feel really sad , and helpless ..any other time i would have tried to stop it ...but not here ..don't stick out..just go on...maybe the little dog is better off dead...at least that is what i am telling myself

cold rainy nasty muddy day today,,,the busses are flyin as usual and if you don't want to be drowned in some seriously nasty street water ...don't stand by any puddles...i just know the get some delight when they catch somebody unawares and splash them good ..jejeje...pinche culero mojarro..or something like that

thanks ..i try...i am out and about everyday..and am trying to pass on a little bit of news when i can.

i really feel for the people here... especially the taco guys ,, street carwash guys ,, chiclet vendors. etc ..who can really know how it is like for them.....any minute they can be told..ok ...take this cel phone and this 500 pesos and if you see this car / truck /guy.. call this number...or else...

i can go back to the USA...

but they are here...and got to endure whatever comes...sometimes i feel like some sort of traidore when i go, but i am also glad to see that American flag waving

what blessing it is to live in a country where we can enjoy at least the expectation of justice...would that it were for everyone

Anonymous at 11:37 PM, you are absolutely right.... Life does go on and children do continue to play, including both grownup children and those younger in age in Monterrey. Mexico is still on the map though! The US so-called war on drugs has yet to militarize every single detail of life down that way.

All this The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling! talk for the norteamericano audience is simply designed to push the dumb assed idea that 'we' US citizens must do something, like scream loudly for the US government to send in troops, more billions of $$$$$$, more urges for Calderon to get tough on 'drugs', and blah blah blah from D.C. and D.C. controlled whorish press.

What 'humanitarians' the gung ho let's send in the Pentagon folk are! They're real bleeding hearts when it comes to calls for more US militarism in the military-industrial conduit. Policing/ Soldiering welfare jobs for the meatheads is really their thing though... They gotta have it! Military pension by their late '40s and yip yip hooray, then they can spend time on the blogs yapping it up about their foreign policy 'expertise' perhaps? That's the way these things seem to work in the Land of the Red White and Blue...

I was over in Colonia San Jeronimo today...nice ... very nice ...also another world... reminded me a little bit of the holly wood hills...but kinda nicer..looked like a good place to invest some drug money...

it really made me think about who was doing the fighting and dying,,,

made me think of the old saying...you can always hire one half of the poor to wage war on other half for he benefit of the wealthy

When the federal government is corrupt and won't force the rich to pay their fair share of taxes to support the entire nation and the population, then you can't look to a corrupt fed to clean anything up.

Mexico is a warning to countries that try to shoot their way out of paying taxes and equalizing wealth.Sorry if it's socialist, but it's reality. Choose either dictatorship, socialism, or violent chaos like in Mexico. Those are your choices.

why should the rich pay more taxes to support the entire nation & population? they worked hard to make their money, so why should they be punished? that's the problem in America today. We give too much to the ones that don't want to work for there own!